Guardian Angel
by PlathRamsey
Summary: Hiding in the shadows, watching over me all of this time. Maddie Fenton's life is saved by Plasmius. Cover art was designed by AllyPhantomRush


We had narrowly escaped our demise countless times. My husband and myself. As career ghost hunters we'd accepted the fact that one or both of us could perish in the line of duty. My Arkansawyer sister, Alicia was to be given guardianship of our two teenagers in such event. My husband had turned his zealous, obsessive hobby, into an occupation he chased energetically. While I couldn't deny it was a passion of mine mutually... I chased it with a better tomorrow for my children in mind. A world where they were safe from nefarious, ungovernable ghosts. I truly believed I was making Amity Park a more peaceful place by capturing ghosts. It was an operation I was willing to sacrifice my safety over. Jack and I had dodged numberless bullets... Yet I couldn't sleep easy tonight. For this hadn't been a savvy sleight of mine that freed us.

This felt like I **directly... cheated...fate.**

Jack had been out of town when I got an irresistible reading on the Fenton EVP. It showed spectral energy of massive proportion. From these warning signals it was bound to be a formidable opponent. _I curse myself now for my cockiness._ Without Jack as my back-up, I should have left the sighting alone.

I was outnumbered by an infantry of armed poltergeist. Their weapons plentiful and the dead-men bloodthirsty. My blasts to cripple only antagonized them. I would never die on my knees; _begging, pleading_... I would never give a ghost that satisfaction! However my life flashed before my eyes. That had never happened regardless of the trouble I was in. I tried to find a happy place and asked death to be quick...

Then _he_ appeared to me. The biggest, baddest ghost the others yielded to. He easily absorbed the glowing green projectiles from one hundred ghost guns. His floating figure shielding the rounds intended for me. It was the Vampire Ghost from my college reunion. The one that seized me from The Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle. The ghost that possessed my husband. I was now uneasy. Had he wanted to fight off the soldiers to kill me himself? In a move not even I could see coming, the ghost beckoned me to run free.

Now I lie awake in an empty bed, a vacant house. My husband and children away for a Father's Day weekend trip. Never would I say this out loud, but Jack was a bumbling, incompetent liability. He meant well so I had faith in him. But for a reason I couldn't shake.. that vampiric-looking ghost made me feel safer in his company than my own husband of 20 years ever had. My ever inquisitive mind needed to know why he spared me?

As dawn breaks, I find myself in the RV. It seemed as though it would be unremarkable... Until I was leveraging control of the RV weaving erratically through traffic. Hyper and _can't leave well enough alone_ Jack had been tinkering with the controls before he left. The more he played mechanic... the more this once reliable vehicle seemed like a death trap on wheels. I flipped open my cell phone, desperate to reach Jack.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HAVING BRAKES ON THE FLOOR IS _TOO OBVIOUS_?!" According to Jack, that's what everyone would be 'expecting.' Relocating the brakes was an anti-theft move. "That is preposterous Jack!" He started to waste my time by explaining the method to his madness, but I was short-tempered due to time running out. "The only thing your Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle is assaulting is your WIFE!"

I make the effort to grip firmly, both hands on the steering wheel so my arms don't flail and turn things more hazardous. I plant my boots into the floor to secure myself in the seat. But my determination to remain level-headed in this emergency has no effect on the RV rapidly gaining speed. At 80 miles per hour our family RV feels like a tin-can. The car and I ascend through the air, then crash onto the Earth... rolling into a flaxen field. The grinding sound is horrible and I can smell the hot metal as the front door is ripped from its hinges. I black out as my body is launched from the RV like a weightless rag-doll

I cannot tell you what happened in those twenty seconds. My blood dripping head is snuggled against a sturdy, soothing chest. Inches away from being a pavement pancake... instead I am rescued by deft hands and secure arms. _Analytical me_ ready to orientate my surroundings to see if I'm still in any danger. He notices me moving my head, and in fear of me causing serious damage, gently pushes me back to his chest. With a protective tone telling me not to move a muscle.

I don't move my head as instructed, but curious violet eyes observe. I see black-gloved hands draped over me. The Ghost Villain! The pallid green complexion, his fang-bearing smile. He applies pressure to my gaping wound and I admit I'd never seen this humanity in a ghost before. I ask myself if I'd been unfairly prejudice. He catches a glimpse of me staring up at him... "Must I remind you, it's impolite to gawk." He hisses.

I couldn't help but be 'impolite.' It was the ghoul that had saved me from warring spirits! I had no reply. My fingers found their way to my bloody head, accidentally touching his hand in the process. I didn't want to be called impolite again, so I figured I'd better move my hand and apologize... but my heart was swelling in gratitude. I took a risk and gave his gloved hand a small squeeze. "Thank you..."

A sappy sigh escaped the ghost... and I wasn't sure if it was the concussion at work for my confusion. Why was this savior spirit suddenly sentimental over his well-deserved 'thank you?'

"No need to suggest anything noteworthy, my dear. It was all in a matter of course!"

"But... you are a villain!" I blurt recklessly. It's a fair statement. He brushed it off as if saving lives was a customary part of his day. This had been the ghost that had attempted to kill my husband multiple times. As I tried to be skeptical, I sensed sincerity... but his goodwill wasn't simply enough to quell my analysis. "I'm a woman of a straight-forward nature... So I'm sorry Mr. Ghost if you feel I'm being impolite by laying it on the line. NONE of this makes sense. Right now... last night... and all of our previous run-ins when your deathly aim was at my husband, Jack Fenton. It's fair to say you've always went easy on me... which again, makes very little sense when you have so much violence and anger in your heart!"

He looked at her, scorned. Vlad's former pal became the ultimate rival while he was incapacitated by a lab accident. _Now this rival was the one she called her husband._ It made his stomach sick! This husband of Maddie's was always putting her in the line of fire... and Vlad was always on the sidelines as her ghostly firefighter. He felt that maybe she recognized that when she mentioned he'd 'always went easy on her.' Unfortunately it flew over her head as she went into wordy ramble.

"With your abilities, you could snap my neck like a twig in your fingers." Vlad grimaced as she picture-painted a scenario where he wasted her. "Being a ghost hunter, I didn't think you'd have the patience for me. I saw you earlier! With the Ghost Army! They bowed their weapons down to you-"

He cut off my sentence to interject a jarring bombshell. "That is every ghosts command when they are dealing with you. You are fierce, which I am aware of. So I beg of you not to misconstrue me. I don't doubt you can handle yourself for a minute. I don't insult your intelligence. I allow them the free-reign to grapple with you. I know you can handle them... and yourself. However... they've been threatened within once inch of their afterlives, if they cause serious bodily harm to you..."

He trails off in censorship, but I nod, persuading him to finish. "Let's just say I am retaliatory and quite ruthless."

I feel floored, breathless at this confession. I had a friend walking along me this entire time... making sure I was safe.  
"Retaliatory and ruthless... I've witnessed... but there is something deeper here. Something more to the story. Why me, a stranger to you? Is it presumptuous to assume I know you? Because you clearly care about me a great deal."

"You always could see right through me, Oh, Maddie. "

 _What?..._

There had only been _one_ person to make a transparency claim about me. It was an obnoxious trait I had in college. At least Jack's best friend Vlad Masters thought so. I could "see right through him." By that he meant that he could never hide **anything** from me! _If he was disappointed with the Packers score. When he didn't get the grade he felt he deserved. When Jack and himself were scheming up shenanigans._ It became an inside joke after a while. How in sync I was with my friend. The only time he'd managed to catch me off guard was minutes before our flawed portal blasted his once perfect skin. His only physical feature that as an insecure young-man he felt confident about.

Apparently there had been something he'd been 'meaning to tell me, for a long, long time' For years I regretted brushing him off for trying to open up that dialogue with me. 'Just a second, Vlad.' Those were the final words I'd spoken to him before his life had forever changed. I was just too caught up in trying to correct Jack's butchered calculations. But I hadn't been able to adjust them in time.

Looking back on that fateful day in the college science lab, I found it unpredictable that Vlad had been wanting to tell me something for a long time. Especially that I hadn't already figured it out by 'seeing right through him.' A skill I was apparently an expert in.

I heard the claim again in recent years, it was at the site of another accident I was in. My pilot went AWOL and I was forced to parachute with my son out of a freefalling jet, right over the aforementioned friend's cabin. He told me I could always "see right through him." Before he asked me to "dump Jack and stay with him." That was the last time Vlad Masters had said those words to me.

Or... maybe... not.

"Vlad...?"

I stared into his burning eyes, urgently demanding truth. There was an audible gulp from the figure. For a hell-raising villainous ghost he sure was nervous... and vulnerable. The halfa covered his face with a single hand and let a glowing white orb phase him from ghost to man. I needed to remove his hand to see his face. I felt as if I were Lois Lane, revealing Superman's civilian identity.

 **3\. 2. 1...**

"Vlad? VLAD! It is YOU... and you... you saved my life!"

He turned from me. Refusing to say anything. Maybe I really could "see right through him" because I could tell that he was feeling exposed. He'd known my hatred of ghosts. So I am sure he wondered if I hated him now in both his ghost and human form. But I didn't. I needed him to know that I didn't. Jack had always been the one to lighten the mood when need be, so I hoped I could pull this off. With a playful smile and my best dramatic voice I mustered. "So what are you... my Superhuman Superhero?"

He laughed wryly. "Think of me as your Guardian Angel."

He had a whole secret life as a villain. A ghostly criminal. I needed to process this. I racked my brain... and still so many questions. "So, this entire time... you've been waiting in the shadows... watching over me?" I felt grateful toward my old friend. A man my husband Jack still considered his best friend.

We smiled at each other, the RV burning ablaze behind us, in a yellow field of purple flowers. I touched his sculpted jaw with my fingertips. My innocent lips planted a kiss in which I intended to show my graciousness. A platonic peck to say 'thanks.' He kissed back in such a way that forced my stomach into my chest. I felt this fiery passion- passion I'd never felt before... or _since_. I didn't fight these intuitions. I started to need him, in a way. We drew back from each other to catch some air, our eyes meeting. All the romance between us; all the attraction. It rightfully seemed to burn there.

The field at my bottom got hot. I glanced over Vlad's shoulder and noticed the burning RV had ignited the dead lawn. With all this burning passion, it made sense that the world around us was on fire. "You did once tell me that you'd leave Jack for me once Heaven burns over." Mischievously he smirked in my face. "The correct phrase is once _Hell freezes over_."

"Hell is the dreadful years I've spent without you, love."

I parted my lips, nothing came out but stutters. "I-I-uh..." I couldn't tell if I was sweating from the heavy conversation or the circle of flames that were enclosing us. "Vlad! The flames!"

With impeccable timing, suddenly our sky filled with storm clouds. A light summer drizzle extinguished wild flames. I lifted my head to clouds. The soft, warm droplets washed away the dried blood on my forehead. Vlad wasn't watching the cloudy gray heavens, instead curious why I was so fascinated with the sky "This is incredible! Did you do this Vlad?" Vlad laughed in amusement. Obviously flattered by the power I expected him to bestow. "Maddie, you flatter me. I'm a half-ghost... not a Wu-shaman. Though, I wish I had... so maybe you'd _thank_ me again." It was the perfect setting with only a kiss left to be had.

Vlad asked like a gentleman if he could kiss my lips. Time paused for him and I. The pace between my "YES!" and our rain-wet lips meeting felt like eternity. Cupid's plan had started to work. His beguiling smile made me kiss him again. He smiled because this seemed unfathomable. Rain drenched his silver pony-tail. Our faces looked as if melting because of the weather's downpour. We pressed our wet foreheads together to shield our faces from the rain... and back to his warm kisses I fell.


End file.
